


All that’s Best of Dark and Bright

by hiddencait



Category: Black Sails
Genre: F/F, Pre-Femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 01:51:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10561396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddencait/pseuds/hiddencait
Summary: "And all that’s best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes"-She Walks In Beauty by Lord Byron(which holy crap is such an Abigail Ashe poem that I can't even.)Instead of John Silver's blue eyes, it is a pair of dark brown ones that catch Madi's attention from behind the bars of the Maroon Camp.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CaptainRivaini](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainRivaini/gifts).



> This is possibly the broadest request I've ever gotten for a fic exchange. I just hope you enjoy what I finally came up with, giftee!
> 
> BTW this is unbetaed as it was a pulling teeth fic that I only finally finished the day it was due. Oops?

The quartermaster, Mr. Silver he calls himself, tells Madi the girl had once been a gentlewoman, a governor’s daughter, sheltered and protected.

 

Madi can see none of that in the dark eyed creature in the cage, one half hidden by the hulking bosun who looms over her much as Kofi does over Madi herself, the man devoted to protecting his tiny sister as he did his brothers. Her mother’s men think to take her first for questioning, to break the men with her death, but Madi intervenes, countermanding the order without hesitating and only looking to her mother for approval after the order to leave the girl alive has left her lips.

 

It is the first time she has spoken against the routine, the first time Madi has commanded as the queen she will someday become in turn after her mother.

 

She cannot say what it is about the girl that sparked that strength within her, that power welling up until Madi felt brave enough to speak her will and sure enough that she would not doubt her will would be accepted as law.

 

Her mother gives her a long look, but does not argue.

 

So men are taken instead, crewmates who die screaming their secrets, petty things that do not tell her mother any of what she needed to know. Of whether this crew can be trusted to keep the secret of the camp.

 

Most who stumble upon their island take that secret to their grave.

 

But this time, there is a strange sense in the air – like a storm building around the red haired captain, the quartermaster, the bosun, and that dark eyed girl – a sense that tells Madi things are set to change in her world and perhaps even the world beyond their island, the world her father has walked and worked in for so long.

 

It is when Madi sends for the clever-tongued quartermaster, allowing him to whisper in her ear as if he is the only man to have spoken such sweet words to her, that she learns the name and the tumultuous history of the young woman.

 

Abigail Ashe.

 

Madi finds it appropriate that this girl whose world has been so irreparably damaged and burned down around her is called ‘ash.’  Though, perhaps she would have been more aptly named as an ember, for Madi guesses there is still a core of heat and fire within this survivor.

 

She lets the quartermaster return to his men. He is a seductive speaker, it is true, and, Madi believes, earnest in a way even he may not realize. His men matter to him, as does the one woman within their midst. In another life, Madi thinks he might have caught and held her attention, blue eyes drawing her in like the shore toward the sea.

 

And yet, and yet. A darker pair of eyes haunts her thoughts, instead. She’s watched the girl watch her people through the bars of their cell, Miss Ashe’s eyes flitting to and fro, watching everything in silence while her brothers rage around her. Madi does not doubt the woman knows far more about the camp than the Maroons might like.

 

She cannot bring herself to feel that knowledge a threat, however.

 

Madi hesitates for another day before deciding to send for this ‘Miss Ashe’ this time instead of the quartermaster. It is only her father’s sudden arrival that keeps her from making that order.

 

It is bittersweet seeing him again after so much time only to see him there in the healer’s room with death drawing near. As always, though, he encourages his daughter to follow her instincts, speaking of the captain and his men and what little he knows of the gentlewoman who has appeared among the crew and who seems favored by Flint himself.

 

Her mother likely will not agree with either of her family members, but Madi can only hope she will not resent her daughter’s decision.

 

It is strange watching Kofi and another of the men approach the cell during daylight in order to fetch her guest, but it feel appropriate, that the woman should emerge to sunshine instead of the midnight dark Mr. Silver had arrived in. Dusk might suit the pale young woman better, but Madi finds herself caught by the sheen of the sun on her dark hair, filthy though it might be as it hangs about her face.

 

Her brothers start a fight when she is called, the bosun’s scuffle with Kofi stopping only at Miss Ashe’s hand upon his arm. Madi is too far away to hear what she must have said to him, but after a long moment, the tall man releases his hold on Madi’s guard and sullenly steps backward, allowing his charge to pass him to the door.

 

It is well, Madi thinks, that the woman sought to avoid bloodshed. Perhaps this will be a voice Madi can work with toward something like… It is not that Madi seeks _peace_ , precisely, but something like it would not be a defeat, she thinks.

 

Miss Ashe nods to Kofi as he shoves her through Madi’s door, her expression holding none of the resentment Madi had guessed she might see there. Ignoring the shackles about her wrists, the former gentlewoman turns slowly, taking in the details with no judgment and only curiosity on her face. The silence stretches between the two of them, going on longer than Madi had planned, but she cannot bring herself to break it first.

 

It is her guest who finally speaks.

 

“I am sorry about your father.” Miss Ashe’s voice is soft, but sincere. More so than Madi might have expected.

 

“Thank you. I understand you father died recently.”

 

“He did.”

 

Madi eyes her. “I also understand that it was Captain Flint who killed him.”

 

“He did.” Her eyes are unreadable, and after a moment, she shrugs. “You wonder if I hate him. I do. A little.” She sighs, looking at once eons older than her years. “But I hated my father too in the end. I know why the captain killed him, and I… I cannot condone my father’s actions, any more than I can condone Captain Flint’s.”

 

“Still, it seems strange to me that you would follow the one responsible for your father’s death.”

 

“It seems strange to me that Captain Flint would care for the daughter of the one responsible for his lovers’ deaths. Yet here we are.” She smiles softly at the confusion Madi knows much lie on her face. “That is the power in him, I think. It is easy to follow those we love unconditionally. It is harder to allow one we hate, even a little, to lead us, harder to be objective when considering their worthiness to lead.” She goes to the window and looks back toward the cell where her crewmates await her return. Madi does not need to look to know the men likely line the bars, violence barely retrained at the thought of another dead body appearing, this time in the shape of their single sister. “I’m not the only one among us with reasons to hate him or fear him, but for now, at least, we all follow him. And those who question it…” She cocks her head, and for the first time Madi sees a bit of mischief on her face. “Well, Mr. Silver and I are working on changing their minds while the captain changes everyone else’s.”

 

Madi snorts, strangely amused by the thought, or perhaps simply amused by her guest. “My mother’s mind will not be so easy to change, you know.”

 

“I imagine not. But the captain: he _believes._ He believes so strongly, that it is hard not to believe yourself once you’ve heard him.” Abigail – when had she become Abigail? – smiles out the window again before turning back to Madi. “You have to know that I must ask this: you lend us your voice. Convince your mother to speak with my captain. Only that. Then she can choose whether to believe or not.”

 

“You truly believe that your captain can convince my mother to choose mercy over the deaths of your men. That she might find something to believe in, in a man you yourself admit has murdered your own father.” Madi shakes her head and laughs softly, her voice almost helpless as she rarely allows it to be. “Even if I can convince her to speak to him… You must know this outcome seems most unlikely.”

 

Abigail offers another of those small enigmatic smiles. “I am told my late godfather once said something that seems appropriate here. ‘Strange pairs – they can achieve the most unexpected things.’”

 

Madi doesn’t answer, but as Kofi leads Abigail back to the cell and her men, she finds she hopes the sentiment will prove true.

 


End file.
